


A

by Out_Of_Custody



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: 2019, 2025, 2026, Bach, Celtic Druids, Darcy is the Queen Of Research, Einstein-Rosen-Bridge, Eliza Frost, Emma Frost has a daughter, Enhancements, Future Fic, Gen, Political Sciences, Seer, Sentinels, Shamans, Stakes, Vdova, Wanda Maximoff & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Woman, Woman is the Ultimate, really am sorry, sorry for feminism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 05:17:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8388745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Out_Of_Custody/pseuds/Out_Of_Custody
Summary: Darcy was not surprised that Jane did manage to rip through the fabric of reality – it’s not precisely what they’d set out to do, but damnably close and brought her favourite boss-woman nearer to her goal than previously anticipated. As it was, Darcy was relatively certain that, within the next four years, Jane would be the first to, indeed, create the Einstein-Rosenberg-Bridge successfully. 2019, however, brought about the subject of stakes.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Stakeheld](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7022662) by [Poetry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry). 



> This is more of a dumpster-thingy that I wrote because my brain can't stop spitting out plot-bunnies and I needed to 'get rid' of this one. I know I'm stalling on another story that people are seriously hedging me to write, but just... let me take my time, okay? It'll come, in the meantime... enjoy this, yeah?

i.

Before any of this was real; _before_ packs and supernatural beings became reality, there was one being that the church feared almost as much as any demon or otherworldly being – a creature that due to their status would remain a dubiously regarded entity even when rifts opened and Dr Jane Foster became the first to be _stakeheld_.

Midgard connected not with another realm, but with another _plane_ of itself and Thor Odinson would later exclaim his awe at the feat that his Lady Queen had performed and gifted to Humanity. She would live to the end of his days due to the _stake_ on her soul and their love would be legendary. But that is yet to come and not relevant as of now.

There was, as mentioned before, this entity, this creature, that bothered the church before demons did, that the men in their habits feared so much they would ban it behind walls and into darkness, feed it but the words of its keepers and would punish for trying to have a mind of its own.

It had magic, could create life of nothing but molecules, it had songs that man did not understand and an allure that could bring him to his knees, it held incomprehensible power in dainty ligaments and even worse was the fact that even as man forbid it to speak it could bewitch with so much as a gesture.

Needless to say that even the _stakeheld_ once they came to be were favourable to those creatures, for the supernatural beings were a thing of science and could be explained – whereas the creature… defied logic as man was wont to employ it.

And so being a Super was favourable to being Woman.

 

ii.

Jane and Steve had a pact.

It was a thing forged of blood and other magic only spoken about behind closed doors that Thor accepted without a shrug – for that was the way _seidr_ was – but which had, incidentally, shocked both the good Captain as well as the young woman.

Jane Foster: First _stakeheld_.  
Since 1941.

Because, as it turned out, Abraham Erskine had not merely been a scientist and without his notes – which Jane had first believed to be a missing link to the Einstein-Rosenberg-Bridge – _the rifts_ would never have opened.

She would never have become a _stakeheld_.  
Captain America would never have come to existence.

The pact was simple: never to reveal the true provenance of Abraham Erskine; never to let the world know – until it would be ready – who and what Steven Grant Rogers had allowed himself to become part of.

 _Stakes_ would never have been possible without the rifts, for the rifts allowed Humanity to reshape – not merely their world, but their reality, their _lives_ and outcome.

And where Dr Jane Foster should have died on June 17th 2019 in the consequent explosion issuing from the force the electromagnetic impulse that tore into the sheer fabric of reality exuded, she had been met with pure _light_ the likes of which Steven Rogers had been able to describe sans hesitation during a debrief later when Dr Foster was still at a loss for words, and had been given a choice.

If humanity had one major flaw, then it was the desire to live.  
Dr Foster chose to live – and had the cleverness to put a deadline to it.

Steven Grant Rogers had not thought that far, back when.

 

iii.

Wanda was not a surprise when she came into their fold. Telekinesis was a rare gift indeed, but documented, and HYDRA had worked hard to find the right _stake_ for her – she didn’t remember any previous _stakes_ , but she knew there must have been. Pietro, bless his soul and _stake_ , had never talked about it to her, had never lost words on what it must have been like; what it must have looked like to him because she can still remember what he looked like to her when they opened him up, again-again-again under the rift until finally ‘the right’ _stake_ took hold and made home in his mangled body.

She did not like to talk about the acquisition of her abilities, but she was well aware that The Captain had read through her, very comprehensive, folder. It was a reason for her to avoid him until that became impossible and she realized that he did not hold it against her.

> _“You do know that I could have met the same fate.”—he tells her one evening after a pool-party she has not participated in because even she cannot look at the gnarled scar-tissue that it most of her back. She gives him an angry, scarlet look that he deflects with a glaring white blaze and she realizes the truth behind his words._

The Sokovian came around more, opened up more and realized that she was not the only one to have met such a fate – not when the previously sole woman on the team herself had had masters much crueller than she’d had.

 _Vdova_ didn’t talk about what had happened to her, but Wanda had seen it all that first time when they had still been on opposing sides and even then had she lamented the fact that a kindred spirit would be out of her reach. No one was surprised when they closed ranks once their sides switched adjectives from opposing to joint with Clint firmly in their midst, cemented as if he were a statue.

 

iv.

The thing about Woman was that their power was… all-encompassing to those who knew how to wield it. There were rumours about spells and rituals, there was word about raw power and ability and sheer will. Given that even the _stakes_ had to admit that the latter was usually what made or broke a deal it was a much valued resource in a humanoid individual. And Woman were said to have it in spades; if only they could tap into it.

Oppressed and denied as they were, however, Woman was soon an endangered species, given the fact that many of the female persuasion accepted a _stakehold_ readily if only to move up in the ranks of society and no longer have to be regarded as the absolute bottom rung.

Needless to say that, around the world, feminist protests broke out, female presidents rallying with Woman on the streets. It was short-lived and to no avail. Ranks thinned and voices faded out until no remaining Woman was willing enough to put herself onto the streets with a card-board and a belly full of rage – none in their right minds either way.

The thing about Woman was that very few _stakeheld_ females were actually able to give birth to healthy children in more than one number – which brought on an, at this point, expected drop in the world’s populace.

It turned out that this wasn’t such a bad thing; though it did come with consequences.

Woman, however, were soon forgotten.

 

v.

Darcy was not surprised that Jane did manage to rip through the fabric of _reality_ – it’s not precisely what they’d set out to do, but damnably close and brought her favourite boss-woman nearer to her goal than previously anticipated. As it was, Darcy was relatively certain that, within the next four years, Jane would be the first to, indeed, create the Einstein-Rosenberg-Bridge successfully.

2019, however, brought about the subject of _stakes_.

True to her curious nature, the freshly-baked PoliSci Graduate dove head-first into research about said _stakes_ – not lastly because in those first months _the rift_ was a closed OP that Darcy got in merely because she incapacitated about ten of the jack-booted-thugs SHIELD send her way to take Jane in and when Captain America was informed of the situation he refused to get in the way of a woman who was so stubbornly loyal.

Clint Barton seemed to approve of the notion and assigned himself as her protective detail as she set out to find out just _what_ had happened to her Jane.

It turned out that her degree was of much more value than either SHIELD or the Avengers could have anticipated; because somebody had actually already solved the puzzle and having found the right documents like the Queen Of Research that she was, enabled her to come to a conclusion within two months.

Ancient Tribes all over the globe had documented cases of _entities_ reaching over from other dimensions to shake hands and enhance a human being as ‘Midgardians’ knew it – there were documented cases of _Sentinels_ all through the Amazonian Jungle: Men or Women who traded for enhanced senses; there were the Celtic Druids and Shamans with Vision Quests and their unending knowledge; there was Bach with his unusual life-span and height of body, not to forget his absolute mastery of the music he chose.

There was, however, one thing they, too all had in common.

> _“You need to understand that this is a trade.”—she let the people in the room know, her eyes sliding to Jane, still pale, but wearing her absolute Game Face for Darcy’s little presentation. “This isn’t just asking for what you want, this is a bargain. Jane nearly died in there and a life is worth a lot.” Her eyes slide to Captain America, almost unwillingly, because now that she knows she can’t unsee it, but she gets a hold of herself and continues unperturbed. “The documents I’ve found all suggest that the stake is a replacement for whatever is sacrificed. A lost heart, under the right circumstances, can mean a lot of place for a stake, whereas a finger might just mean a little enhancement.”_

 

vi.

The thing about the entities from their parallel reality was this: they adhered to a hierarchy and once a _stake_ was claimed, usually the need for a particular social structure bled over to the vessels of the _stake_.

It was one of the reasons why being _stakeheld_ was attractive enough for Woman to abandon their protests and make a new place for themselves. Mere Midgardian hierarchy and customs were easily overcome by _stake_ -ranking.

Due to this, too, Midgardians found themselves clustering in heretofore unknown quantities and qualities – the agglomerations often carrying the name that the leading entity bestowed onto them; _packs_ , _herds_ and _prides_ were amongst the most popular denominations.

Darcy thought it curious that most entities would chose Fauna-related cluster-descriptions, but didn’t dwell on it for too long, for the question was one that couldn’t be answered to her by regular means. While entities _could_ speak through their Midgardian vessels, most of the time they chose not to given that the act tended to wear on the human substance more than the _stakes_ wanted to.

And that was another thing she thought curious. Because the entities actually cared more about their vessels, than many humans did before they’d been _stakeheld_ – Tony Stark was a prime example.

 

vii.

It’s the year 2025 when the _stakes_ first revealed that Woman was The Ultimate. No other enhanced being could hold even the tiniest of candles to Woman.

> _“Understand that She has all.”—Eliza Frost’s voice croaks through the library. “Understand that We are but a shadow of Her and that She could bind even the mightiest of us.”_
> 
> _Erik is somewhat unsettled by the revelation, even though the rebel that has for ever and always a seat in his heart of hearts gleefully hears the news._
> 
> _“Would you have us hunt Her down?”—he wonders quietly, giving Ororo a meaningful look over the head of Emma Frost’s eldest; the tanned woman looks about as uneasy as he feels with the question. Thankfully, Eliza shakes her head._
> 
> _“If you were to hunt Her down, you would bring doom upon us all.” Not, granted, that this sounds any better--_

\--because, of course, news of Her reached the outside-world; and mankind had only ever known one reaction when faced with a new, unknown component that was supposed to be ‘Ultimate’. Especially when it was about Woman.

 

viii.

2026 saw the WSC on a global search for Woman.

Darcy Lewis, PhD, vocally denounced it as a witch-hunt and a recession to the Dark Ages.

The world didn’t listen.


End file.
